ATLANTA --
Fire investigators said an explosion leveled a house in northwest Atlanta and damaged a home next door.
Firefighters told Channel 2’s Darryn Moore they arrived at the home on Mobile Street just after midnight and found part of the house leveled and heavy flames.
“The house next door went boom at first. It sizzled, and then went ‘boom’", said neighbor Barbara Wilder.
Firefighters told Moore they had trouble with the fire hydrant when they arrived, making it difficult to get the fire under control.
“We had water, but it wasn’t enough water to do what we needed to do so we had to locate a second hydrant,” said Atlanta Fire Battalion Chief Broyant Tate.
Wilder told Moore that while firefighters tried to find water the fire jumped to her home.
“The little fire that was on my house, they just let it burn. It was just a little bit,” said a tearful Wilder.
She and eight others, including five children, made it out of the house, but the fire destroyed the backside of her home and also caused extensive smoke and water damage.
“No trucks had water. Nobody had no water, no water nowhere. The house just burned. It just made no sense for it to burn,” said Wilder.
Neighbors told Moore that no one lived in the house that exploded, but a new tenant was about to move in.
Investigators from the Fire Department and Atlanta Gas Light were trying to determine what caused the fire.
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